SAP offers Africa Utility Week golden boost

By MTHULISI SIBANDAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE global software giant, SAP, has been confirmed as the gold sponsor of the upcoming African Utility Week set for Cape Town, South Africa.
Brian Williams, Industry Advisory Director of Utilities Industry at SAP Europe Middle East and Africa, said the participation followed the realisation the energy sector would go through a big transformation.
He is a featured speaker in the Transmission & Distribution conference track focusing on “Digital Transformation: What impact will the Internet of Things have on utilities?” at the Africa Utility Week set for May 16-18.
“The SAP Africa message at African Utility Week will be that organisations need to focus on becoming a relevant digital utility of the future,” Williams said ahead of the event.
He said SAP would focus on how new technology and big data can be used to significantly improve efficiencies and how the performance of utilities Infrastructure can be optimised, to prolong the asset life span, maximise energy production, minimise downtime and reduce maintenance cost.
SAP is investing in all energy and natural resource industries in all African regions.
In 53 African countries it has identified the regions of high, medium and lower opportunities for transformation.
“For instance, in utilities we considered that all countries are potentially capable to transform and use the power of digital, to improve their energy value chain, because every country has an electricity, gas or water champion,” Williams said.
More than 4,500 utility companies in 123 countries are innovating with SAP Solutions. Forty-five of the top 50 utility companies in the world run SAP solutions.
The 17th annual African Utility Week will gather over 7000 decision makers from more than 80 countries to source the latest solutions and meet over 300 suppliers.
– CAJ News